Opposition View: Nottingham Forest

Forest started the season with a win against Millwall last Friday night; how did that go?

They were quite fortunate if I’m being entirely honest! Millwall are a physical, well drilled side and Forest didn’t cope with it very well. Had Millwall made more of the four or five clear-cut chances they carved out they could easily have won; it was only because Forest had a bit of cutting edge through Barry McKay that they won.

Based on that, do you think that Mark Warburton has done enough business this summer considering the club only narrowly escaped the drop last season?

It’s only one game and it’s fairly unique opposition in that there aren’t too many sides like Millwall in the Championship. Most of them now like to play football and if Forest go toe-to-toe with a footballing side, you’d fancy them to do rather better than that. I think the business they’ve done this summer has been pretty good – they’ve signed some good players without spending an absolute fortune; Barrie McKay looks to be an absolute steal for £500k. I don’t think there’s too much of an issue with the personnel - they’re still getting used to the way that Warburton wants to play.

Speaking of Warburton, he returns to Brentford this weekend - the club where he made his name in management. Do you think he’ll be relishing it?

I’m not sure he’s the sort of character to be distracted by any sort of vengeance or anything like that, but I’m sure he’ll probably enjoy that challenge. I’ve spoken to him briefly about it already but he didn’t really make too much of a big deal of it. The interesting thing is that it’s going to be a match-up between two sides with a similar footballing ethos – Forest are certainly in for a different challenge to Millwall.

Who would you name as the most dangerous Forest player that Brentford should look out for?

From what we’ve seen in preseason, there’s no doubt that’ll be Barrie McKay. He only had a year left on his Rangers contract which is why the club managed to sign him so cheaply and he just fits perfectly into the way that Forest like to play. He can be an out-andout winger where he’s quick and can take people on, but he’s also got really good passing ability. He’s going to be a figure that will surprise a lot of people in the Championship this season.

What’s your score prediction for Saturday?

I’m going to sit on the fence and say it’ll be a draw.

Read the full preview piece with Paul in Saturday's copy of Bees, on sale around the ground for just £3.50.

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